The Dictionary Project

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The Dictionary Project

The Dictionary Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The goal of this program is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionaries.

05/30/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Transient

The root of the word transient is the Latin trānsiēns, which means "going across."

Its first recorded appearance in English is in Thomas Blundeville's The Arte of Logike, a textbook published in 1599.

Although trānsiēns, and some modern related words like transit, imply movement, transient's meaning is more metaphorical.

It does not describe something which physically travels, but something ephemeral, here one moment and gone the next.

05/29/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Accentuate

This year, Minnesota's Harbortown Rotary delivered over 700 dictionaries to local third-graders.

These handwritten notes from Lester Park Elementary students accentuate the positive impact this program has on young readers.

05/28/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Promote

New York's Valley Stream Elks Lodge #2164 knows that to promote literacy is to build a better future.

This year, they visited the Valley Stream 24 School District to present dictionaries to each third-grader.

With their new books in hand, these students have a reminder that someone in their community believes in them.

05/27/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Sophomore

Sophomore combines the Greek words sophos, meaning "wise", and moros, meaning "foolish".

This combination captures the idea of the wise fool — someone who is learned, yet blind to the limits of their own understanding. A sophomore has enough knowledge to think they know everything, but not enough to realize how much they have yet to grasp.

While the word has Greek roots, it is relatively modern, first appearing in the late 1600s at British universities like Oxford and Cambridge as a pejorative term for second-year students.

Over the years, the negative connotations of the term have fallen away, and what was once an insult has since become the standard term for any student in their second year.

05/26/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Magnanimous

Every fall, the magnanimous Rotary Club of Pearlridge in Hawaii, puts a dictionary in the hand of each third-grade student at fourteen different elementary schools. Their generosity doesn't stop there.

At the end of the year, Rotarians return to each school to recognize the students who best embodied the values printed on the inside cover of their new dictionaries: Rotary International's Four-Way Test.

The Four-Way Test

Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it bring goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

A boy and a girl from each school, nominated by their teachers, receive Good Citizen Awards, along with a congratulatory letter and a fifty-dollar check. Recently, the club visited Manana Elementary to celebrate that school's winners.

Two students were recognized, but every child in the school is growing into something: a literate, educated, good citizen.

05/25/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Indebted

On the last Monday of May, we observe Memorial Day, a tradition that traces its roots to the years following the Civil War, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans, began gathering to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. For a time, different states and communities chose their own days to honor the dead.

In 1971, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, establishing Memorial Day as an official federal holiday.

Today, our grateful nation comes together to remember all those who gave their lives in service to our country.

We are forever indebted to them.

05/23/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Lethargy

The root of the word lethargy is the Ancient Greek lethargia, which combines lethe, meaning forgetfulness, and argos, meaning idleness or inactivity.

In Greek mythology, Lethe is a river within Hades, the underworld. The souls of the dead drink from it and forget their lives. The river was also deeply connected to sleep: Hypnos, the Greek god of Sleep, was said to reside in a cave through which Lethe ran.

The word entered Old French as litargie before passing into English in the 14th century. The modern spelling we use today was adopted in about 1590.

05/22/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Felicitious

Rotarians from The Rotary Club of Hercules, California, had a felicitous encounter during their final dictionary delivery of the year.

While giving dictionaries to third graders at Rodeo Hills Elementary School, they met Leticia Bhatia, the superintendent of the John Swett Unified School District.

She told them that as a child, she had received her very own dictionary from Rotary.

The curious third-grader who receives a dictionary today may lead a school district tomorrow.

05/21/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Preponderance

There is a preponderance of evidence that children who rely heavily on screens in the classroom fall behind in reading comprehension.

That's why Florida's Rotary Club of Palatka gives out personal, physical dictionaries to third-grade students each year.

Recently, they visited the Children's Reading Center Charter School, and the preponderance of excitement and engagement in the room was plain to see.

05/20/2026

Today's Word of the Day: Stamina

Address

PO Box 180159
Coronado, CA
92178

Telephone

+18438562706

Website

http://www.dictionaryproject.org/

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